C 374 ] 
of any artificial Metkod, he looked over the Compo- 
sition of the Flower with regard to its Petals, Calyx, 
and Seed-veflel, after the manner of ProfefTor Boer - 
haave , at a Time when nobody had confidered the 
Stamina and Tubes as generical Notes: That he 
compared with his Plants the botanical Writers of 
more than Two Centuries, whofe Names are men- 
tioned at the End of the Preface, beginning in order 
of Time with Brunfelfius , and concluding with the 
late Work of Monjieur Geoffroy : That he had exa- 
mined their Descriptions of Plants, and compared 
them with their Figures, and made himfelf a Pinax 
of the Plants of Switzerland, even to the prefent 
Time. 
Our Author, in the Work before us, has never in- 
ferted a doubtful Plant, without mentioning his 
Scruple, nor any but what he himfelf has feen, with- 
out an Afterisk. He has added to the End of the 
Work, thofe which he could with but little Cer- 
tainty refer to any Clafs ; and, contrary to the Prac- 
tice of Some late Writers, he never enumerates Vari- 
ety, nor ever regards Proportion as a Mark of Specific 
Difference, if even a lels Plant produces Flowers 
twice as big as a larger Plant of the fame Species, and 
holds that Size when planted in Gardens, and con- 
tinues the Difference to its Pofierity. 
As to the Method and Order of this Work, our 
Author has been as fhorr, and at the fame time as 
deferiptive, as pofiiblc. He has given the Syno- 
nymies of molt good Authors : He generally firft affixes 
the Name the Difcoverer gave it, unlefs a very im- 
proper one j and then proceeding ufually as the Au- 
thors lived, lets down the Appellations of Conrad 
Gefner , 
